This section is intended to provide a background to the technology described in this disclosure. This background may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and/or claims of this disclosure and is not admitted to be prior art by the mere inclusion in this section.
As computer technology has improved, the digital media industry has evolved greatly in recent years. Users are able to use electronic devices such as mobile communication devices (e.g., cellular telephones, smart phones, tablet computers, etc.) to consume music, video and other forms of media content. For instance, users can listen to audio content (e.g., music) and/or watch video content (e.g., movies, television (TV) broadcasts, etc.) on a variety of electronic devices.
At the same time, advances in network technology have increased the speed and reliability with which information can be transmitted over computer networks. It is therefore possible for users to stream media content over computer networks as needed, or on demand, rather than transmitting a complete file in physical media (such as CD or DVD, or downloading the entire file) before consuming the media content.
Some music streaming services allow users to browse a catalog, or collection, of songs and to select song(s) from the catalog. When using the music streaming service, the user can thus browse a multitude of songs, or albums of songs, and listen to short preview segments of these songs. At the same time, content owners typically desire its content to be protected from unauthorized copying, or theft. Therefore, in order to protect the content it is common that content owners require encryption of the content, and/or related technical measures. Decryption of encrypted content commonly involves exchange of cryptographic keys and additional communications between the computer server system that provides the music streaming service and the electronic device that playbacks the music. When browsing a multitude of encrypted shorter preview segments of the songs, the additional time associated with the exchange of cryptographic keys and/or the additional communications between the computer server and the electronic device may result in a delay of the playback of the preview segments of the songs. The browsing of music may therefore be perceived as unnecessarily time consuming and, hence, cumbersome to some users. Also, despite the advances in computer network speed and reliability, some existing solutions for streaming music may involve relatively long loading times of the encrypted preview segments of these songs. This may e.g. be particularly true when transitioning, or switching, between various encrypted preview segments when utilizing a wireless network with limited bandwidth. Thus, if a user attempts to scan, or browse, through several selectable songs of a collection of songs over such network, the user may sometimes experience breaks when loading the encrypted shorter preview segments of the songs. This may be perceived as frustrating or annoying to some users, particularly at times when the user cannot devote all of his/her attention to making the selection or at times when he/she wants or needs to locate a particular song quickly.